Injury to Steven Stamkos overshadows Lightning win over Detroit

Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos is out indefinitely with a lateral meniscus tear.

Ryan Sproul scored a goal and an assist in Tuesday’s 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Last year, he missed most of the playoffs with a blood clot issue. After squandering the first two power plays, Ryan Sproul converted on the third one to score his first career National Hockey League goal. The balanced Blues offense received goals from Jaden Schwartz, Robby Fabbri, Scottie Upshaw and Kyle Brodziak as St. Louis dominated the final 20 minutes to make Jake Allen’s 23 stops stand up and help end a three game losing streak.

You can forgive the Red Wings for being a little thunderstruck by that 4-3 tally. They are 6-1-0 in those games.

The second period saw good chances as the Wings broke out the puck well, creating rushes that demanded good saves from Bishop early on.

And Kucherov stepped up Tuesday, his two goals giving him three in the past two games and eight for the season.

Canada’s Stamkos did not travel with the team to Buffalo for Thursday’s game against the Sabres and has returned to Tampa for treatment. He has scored nine goals with 11 assists in 17 games for Tampa Bay.

As of now, Stamkos isn’t even the team’s leading scorer – that would be Nikita Kucherov.

The Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs have released their rosters for the upcoming NHL Centennial Classic Alumni Game. It was Zetterberg’s third goal.

It was Nesterov’s third multi-point game of his career (first in regular season) and his second against the Red Wings (also on 4/18/15).

The Lightning are in Buffalo as they continue their road trip.

NOTE: Tampa Bay LW Jonathan Drouin missed his seventh game because of an upper-body injury and D Anton Strahlman missed his second game with an upper-body injury.